Pickering's Muscular Dystrophy ambassador more than a man in a wheelchair

Alex Harold shares his story and educates

Oshawa This Week

Alex Harold has made it his mission to teach people about muscular dystrophy.

The Pickering man works with Muscular Dystrophy Canada to raise awareness by speaking at events and conferences.

He is the ambassador for Durham's Walk for Muscular Dystrophy, to be held Sunday, May 27 at Heydenshore Park in Whitby.

And Mr. Harold, 19, who has Duchennes muscular dystrophy, suggests people have a lot to learn.

"A lot of people don't get it, they see you in a wheelchair and think that's it, you're disabled," he explains, noting that when it comes to muscular dystrophy, it's much more than whether one has the ability to walk.

We all do it, don't we? We see a person in a wheelchair and one of our first thoughts is about what they cannot do. We also have the selfish, but natural thought, 'glad it's not me'. Or perhaps we imagine ourselves in his or her place and think, 'I don't know what I'd do if it was me'.

Mr. Harold doesn't have to imagine. He was diagnosed at age four.

Muscular dystrophy is especially nasty. Inevitably, it causes weakness in the voluntary muscles that allow us to, for example, raise an arm to hail a cab. It's an erosion of a person's abilities and Mr. Harold knows this first-hand.

"It's difficult to see your abilities getting worse. It's hard to see that five or six years ago I could lift my arms over my head on my own. When I was younger I could run and walk. When there's something new that doesn't work it's hard. Confronting the fact that you're going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, that's a shock to the system."

Some, perhaps many of us, would only want to hide away in a dark place and let Muscular Dystrophy take its course.

But Mr. Harold is made of stronger stuff and he steps out into the light to educate and, in the process, inspire.

"I want to give muscular dystrophy a run for its money," he says. "I want people to have hope that there will be a cure, that we're doing something to fight this."